EU ‘preparing to pay’ Turkey €50mn to help bolster coast guard – official

The European Union is preparing to pay Turkey tens of millions of euros to help bolster its coast guard, a senior EU official said on Wednesday. Increasing numbers of people have been leaving Turkey recently in hopes of finding sanctuary or jobs in Europe.

Greek authorities have been struggling to cope with a sharp rise in the number of migrant arrivals to Lesbos and other islands in the eastern Aegean Sea, near the Turkish coast. EU-funded camps in Greece are suffering severe overcrowding and outbreaks of violence.

“We have prepared a set of measures amounting to some €50 million ($55 million),” according to Maciej Popowski, the deputy director-general for EU enlargement policy.

He said part of the money would help to “improve the capacities of the Turkish Coast Guard to perform search and rescue operations,” AP reports.